1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a television broadcasting system, and particularly to a system for storing a received television broadcast signal and reproducing it for viewing.
2. Related Background Art
In recent years, with the progress of digital technology, the conventional analog systems, NTSC, PAL, and SECAM systems are giving way to digital systems for a television broadcasting system. For example, the digitalized terrestrial broadcasts have already been started in the United States and Europe, and in Japan, the BS digital broadcasts were started on December in 2000 and the digitalized terrestrial broadcasts are scheduled to be started in 2003.
In addition, with the digitalization of the television broadcasts, the conventional analog video recorders are also giving way to digital video recorders regarding recorders at the receiving ends. Furthermore, there have been conventionally suggested methods, apparatuses, and systems using a hard disk, which has ever been used mainly as a storage unit for a computer, as a storage unit for recording television broadcast data.
For example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-264529, there has been disclosed a video recorder, which uses a random accessible semiconductor memory or disk instead of a recording medium performing sequential recording so as to be capable of special reproduction such as time shifting for starting to reproduce a recorded program at desired timing during recording television broadcast data of a certain program and delayed reproduction for quickly reproducing in a forward direction a recorded program from its beginning to a current recording position at a partway advanced stage of program recording.
The conventional television broadcast processor having this type of reproduction function, however, cannot reproduce a program at a pace exceeding the actual program broadcasting.
Therefore, for example, in case that a program of an auto race held on one day is broadcasted on that day for two hours from 11:30 at night, conventionally it is impossible to view the entire program in half an hour which receiving and recording television broadcast data of the program and quickly reproducing it in the forward direction.
Thus, conventionally the following users' demands are not satisfied due to limitations of program editing time or of programming plans: a demand for viewing a program broadcasted in late night hours or a program whose result only is desired to be known by a user and a demand for finishing viewing a program as soon as possible for any reason.
Furthermore, in the conventional television broadcast processor, a user cannot go back to the past to reproduce and view a program, in other words, to view a program which is now being broadcasted, from the beginning of the program at this time point.
Therefore, for example, in case that a user is going to view a program broadcasted for an hour from 10:00 to 11:00 but a quarter hour has already been elapsed from the beginning of the program broadcasting, it is impossible to meet a user's demand for viewing the entire program from the beginning.